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John Wesley

John Wesley is an American Pop artist whose graphic nudes set minimalistic figures in surreal settings across pastel shades of pink, green, and blue. His work has been shown across exhibition sites from MoMA P.S.1. to the windows of the Hermès store on Madison Avenue. John Wesley's acrylic paintings show imaginary nude figures set against grass greens, baby blues, and pastel pinks, often accompanied by the artist's signature white border. Wesley's images became well-known in the 1960s for their use of traditional emblems, historical figures, comic book personalities, animals, and sexualised women, drawing from advertising materials such as stock photos and tracing paper

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Untitled is a Gouache on paper painting, conducted in 1990 by John Wesley, measuring 22.5 x 23.75 in. (57.15 x 60.32 cm.). It is signed & dated in the middle bottom centre, very lightly in black felt pen. On the frame back board, it has stickers from the Daniel Weinberg Gallery & The Elkon Gallery. Combining his characteristic tone of subtle erotica with planar flatness, the above work represents American artist John Wesley’s maximization of bold line and solid chroma to create intense studies of the female body. Separating himself from Pop Art by trading cultural commentary for a view of private experience, Wesley here constructs an emotional scene replete with corporeal intimacy and commercial product. Through close cropping and a focus on accenting sensuality with pale blue and deep red color, Wesley transforms an everyday moment into a poetic environment with exacting attention to form.

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